


Time Doesn't Matter (unless you're dancing with wolves)

by rockthecliche



Category: Johnny's Entertainment, KAT-TUN (Band)
Genre: Gen, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-03
Updated: 2012-02-03
Packaged: 2017-10-30 13:29:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/332240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockthecliche/pseuds/rockthecliche
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unexpected giant chandeliers should go in the books as a symbol of trying times to come.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Doesn't Matter (unless you're dancing with wolves)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for zenfu at fic_the_faith's 2011 cycle. I had a ton of fun with this one and am really, really happy with the outcome. ♥

The first thing Jin notices when he blinks his eyes open is the giant, gargantuan, couldn't-even-possibly-exist chandelier hanging above him.

Of course, his eyes burn once he realizes the light is shining right into them, but rolling over and trying to mush his face into the ground works, even if the ground is marble and hard and probably just as bright as the rest of the room. He can't be assed to take a look around, though, and instead concentrates on getting his headache to go away.

Surprisingly, it does go away. Relatively soon. A lot faster than Jin would have given himself credit for, especially since there're a lot of questions in his mind like, " _where am I?_ " and " _what the fuck am I doing here?!_ " But hey, he's a Johnny -- far stranger things have happened. It just depended on what the definition of 'strange' was.

He groans and sits up. He looks around once. Does it again. And another time.

"...ballroom." Jin says in English, for no reason other than he feels like it.

He finally drags himself to his feet. "What the hell?!" Jin spins around, thinking this would actually be somewhat romantic, considering the grand scale of the room he is in. Floor to ceiling pillars, ornate double doors leading out, aforementioned giant chandelier, every friggin' surface in the room sparkling like their stylists had personally gotten a hold of the place. Seriously. What?

"Finally, you're up."

Jin whirls around to look for the source of the voice, but he doesn't see anyone and is fairly convinced that he's gone to locoland when there's a searing heat right by his ankle. He jerks away, hopping up and down on one foot and looks down --

And there's a little candleman staring at him.

"Down here, idiot." The voice is familiar, so familiar that he can't really tell who it reminds him of, but -- _a talking candlestick thing_.

"What the fuck, you can talk?!" Jin checks his ankle. A small bit of his skin is red with agitation. He wonders if this counts as a 2nd degree burn.

"Yes. I can. Obviously." The candlestick straightens up and glares at him. "You sure took your time napping on the ground. We have a time limit here."

"And I would know this how?! Did you really have to burn me? I think I'm dying and it's totally your fault," Jin snaps, feeling well enough to stomp his foot when he puts it back down. "Where the hell am I? And who are you?"

The candleman actually rolls his eyes this time. "It's Nakamaru. And we're in your castle."

Jin doesn't own a castle. Or at least he thought he didn't. The news that he owns a castle is pretty awesome, though, and then he looks down and glances at the candleman who is supposedly Nakamaru and --

The only way he manages to stop laughing is when Nakamaru singes him again. Fucker.

"Will you cut that out?!" Jin's hopping around again, clutching his other ankle this time. However, instead of Nakamaru’s voice in response, this one's different; quieter but seeping with thinly veiled annoyance.

"Can you stop hopping around? Your shoes are filthy and it's getting the floor dirty." A typical yet slightly round clock wanders over. He has a frown on his face and Jin almost feels bad -- until he remembers that this is a talking clock, Nakamaru is a talking candle, and everyone’s gone absolutely mad.

"Who are you?!" Jin demands. This must be some nightmare.

"It's Kame," Nakamaru replies for him. The clock gives a small, friendly wave, although his clockgear eyes are staring at him like he's a bag of trash.

Jin is wrong. This _is_ a nightmare.

"This is insane," Jin mutters. He spins around, looking for the closest way out and makes a beeline for it, ignoring Nakamaru’s insufferable sigh, but it's all pointless anyway since the doors won't open. Figures.

He whirls around and if candlesticks could be tapping their foot in impatience, that's exactly what Nakamaru would be doing right now.

Jin eyes the doors at the other end of the room. "Do those open?"

Nakamaru looks at them. "Yeah. It leads out to the balcony."

"...so I can get out of here?" Jin starts moving.

"If you try to jump off the balcony, you're going to wind up here again."

"That's impossible."

"Try it."

So Jin does. He throws the doors open, breathes in a bit of the fresh air outside, and tosses himself over the railing of the balcony. It's not that high, it can't possibly --

When he lands on his feet back in the ballroom, Nakamaru is sighing again and Kame is telling the mop and broom to clean up after Jin's footprints.

"Are you ready to listen now?" Nakamaru asks.

Jin shuts up and nods, and he begins.

So he's in some kind of castle. It looks kind of familiar, all gloomy with super high ceilings, a little bit goth, a little bit Victorian, a little bit weird when the ottoman dog runs over and demands to be pet. Nakamaru takes him on a tour of the castle, showing him his room, the kitchen, the dining room, anywhere that's important in the little candle's eyes. Kame follows along only because Nakamaru makes him, randomly interjecting when he feels like it. Most of the time, Jin ignores him. There's very little room for his overwhelmed mind right now, all things considered, and whenever he asks too many questions, Nakamaru gets irritated and rebuffs him, saying that it’s hard to research and read up on what’s happening when his hands burn everything they touch.

"So, uh, this is great and everything, but what am I exactly doing here? And this doesn’t explain why you and Kamenashi aren’t people.” Jin leans against the chest of drawers in his supposed bedroom.

“I haven’t showed you _her_ yet, but she’s out with the wolves right now.” Nakamaru says, using the metal part of his candlestick hand to rub at his waxy head. “Which, to be frank, totally goes against us time-wise, but she insisted on – “ He pauses.

“...on…?” Jin prompts.

He at least looks embarrassed. “…she insisted on going to _fang out_ with the wolves for a while.”

Ouch.

“It’s been a few hours,” Kame supplies as he’s tucking in the corners of the sheets on the bed. “She should be back soon. Or she fell asleep in the yard.”

“Wait, she _hangs out with wolves_? What kind of lunatic is she?” Jin asks.

“’ _Fangs_ out.’ And truthfully, befriending wolves wasn’t in the original script, but she somehow managed it. If you want to go look for her, she’s out in the backyard. You should be allowed to get there by now,” Nakamaru says, bowing his head a little in greeting to the feather-duster sweeping by.

“Is she hot?” To Jin, this is of utmost importance, but the disgruntled look on both their faces launches him out of the room and out to the backyard with haste.

He manages to get lost twice, both times bringing him to what he assumes to be the lobby of the castle, and finally makes it outside on the third try. There’s a courtyard and a fountain, what looks to be some leftover snow, tall iron wrought pieces fencing the enclosed space and there, right by the gate to the his left, is a girl surrounded by a small pack of wolves. The fact that they aren’t staring at her like some delectable treat is a bit of a shock to his system – if anything, she looks like she’s having the time of her life.

“Oi!” Jin yells. Heads turn; the relaxed looks on the wolves instantly alert into danger faces, and Jin feels like he may have made the wrong choice. “Um. I mean.”

“Oh, you’re up!” The girl gets up on her feet and Jin goes slightly wide-eyed at how tall she actually is. Taller than him, even. “Yucchi and Kame told me you were here, but you were passed out in the ballroom.” She starts to walk over to him, and the closer she draws, the clearer her face becomes. Her nose is a little flat at the bridge but prominent otherwise, the column of her neck long and lithe. The closer she gets, though, the more…something doesn’t sit quite right, and it clicks when she’s right in front of him.

After all, Jin could recognize that grin anywhere.

“ _Taguchi?!_ ”

She -- _he_ \-- tilts his head to the side and looks confused. “Yeah?” He looks down. “Oh…yeah. I don’t know, I woke up in this and there’s no other clothing. Yucchi said the wardrobe won’t open until later, so I’m stuck in this.” Taguchi does a twirl, his dress fanning out in an impressive swirl, the red hooded cape fluttering in the wind. Figures. Taguchi always made a good woman.

Jin takes all of this in stride. _Stranger things have happened_ is now a mantra, running nonstop through his head, and there’s nothing he can do but go along with it. He knows enough now that just trying to run away won’t solve anything – literally, seeing as he always winds up where he starts – but maybe it’ll all end up for the better. Maybe. _Hopefully._

“So…you’re a girl,” Jin begins.

Taguchi nods. “Yep! Well, just dressed like one, at least.”

“This makes no sense,” Jin adds.

“Yep!” Another nod.

“Why are you so _happy_?!” Jin scowls.

Taguchi gestures at the wolves sitting obediently by his feet. “I befriended these guys in an hour! Doesn’t that make me pretty awesome? What’s not to be happy about?”

 

“So, I’m stuck in this castle with you, Kame the talking clock, and Nakamaru the talking candlestick.”

“Candelabra.” Taguchi wilts a little at Jin’s glare. “Erm. Candlestick is fine.” He shuts the heavy doors behind them as they head back into the castle, toeing his sensible heels off in the entryway. Jin’s a little disturbed to see he has stockings on.

“And you’re saying that I have to fall in love to get out of here.”

“And to break the curse! I’ll be a guy again, Kame and Yucchi will return to their rightful selves, and so will you!” Taguchi beams, gesturing to the magically charmed rose in its glass container.

“Wait, what are you talking about, I’m completely normal,” Jin starts.

Taguchi, however, looks a little apprehensive. “…oh. You, ah, haven’t looked in the mirror yet, have you?”

Jin merely raises an eyebrow at him. “…should I be worried?”

Taguchi shakes his head. “No! No, I mean…I still like you all the same!”

Jin almost breaks the mirror when he looks in it and sees that he’s grown a pretty scraggly moustache and his hair is ratty, like he hasn’t washed it in a few days. Most telling, though, is the heavy eyeliner that won’t come off no matter how hard he scrubs and the tasseled pirate hat that refuses to budge no matter how hard he tries. To top it all off, he looks like he’s about thirty pounds overweight. Generally, Jin’s glad there’s only one mirror in the entire castle, otherwise he’d be tempted to break them all.

“You look like a plump Captain Jack!” Taguchi pats his back.

Jin’s sure he means it as a compliment – or something – but he glares at him anyway. “Shut up. I look like a train wreck.”

“It could be worse?” Taguchi supplies in a reassuring tone. “We haven’t found Uepi or Koki yet. Don’t lose hope.”

Taguchi does have a point. Jin sighs and rolls his eyes, posture deflating. “…captain _Jin_.”

“Right, right.” Taguchi giggles and salutes. “Yes, captain.”

Looking at it objectively, Taguchi’s an idiot in a dress. Jin figures that in comparison, his life could be worse.

 

They have a meeting then, the four of them, and Nakamaru regales them with a presentation on what he’s discovered about the castle and why they’re there. What he has to say isn’t all that reassuring – there’s a wilting rose in Jin’s bedroom and, unless someone can find it in their hearts to fall in love with Jin by the time the rose completely dies, they’ll be forever cursed. Jin asks Nakamaru how he knows all of this and doesn’t feel much better when he’s told that it was on a note in the kitchen.

“We’re screwed,” Kame mutters. Jin shoots him a dirty look while Nakamaru barrels on.

Nakamaru reveals that, according to his calculations, they have approximately four days left before the final petal falls. Four days is a lot! Jin could go out to town, check out the local bar scene, see who wants a chance to smush – just because he’s a little _different_ looking than he usually is doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the charm…

“So who wants to be the lucky one?” Nakamaru asks.

“To do what?” Jin wonders out loud. He wasn’t planning on bringing them with him on his nights out, considering two of them should be inanimate objects and the other is a dude in women’s clothing who can’t seem to change out of them. Worst wingmen ever, for serious.

“To fall in love with you,” Nakamaru says simply.

“You didn’t think it would be an outsider, did you?” Kame retorts at Jin’s aghast face.

“I sure as hell didn’t think it would be one of you, either!” Jin snaps.

“I don’t know why _you’re_ angry. We’re the ones in an unfortunate position,” Kame says dryly.

“I’ll do it,” Taguchi pipes up before Jin can get an answer in. “It makes the most sense, doesn’t it? It’d be weird, having a romance between a clock and a pirate. Or a candlestick and a pirate.”

“Candelabra,” Nakamaru interjects. Taguchi keeps going.

“Right. Anyway, since we really don’t have that much time, it’d be easier if it was me. I’m halfway there as it is.” Taguchi grins, embarrassed, scratching the back of his head. “Guess my secret’s out.”

The only rational thought Jin has to that remark is Kame’s impersonation of a goldfish is pretty spot on.

 

Dinner is a subdued event. The kitchen staff is loud, _really_ loud and full of raunchy jokes about boobs and butts and the oven keeps smacking people with its door to do their jobs. Kansai-ben runs rampant around them so much that Jin’s head swims, and what ends up on their plates is perfectly cooked okonomiyaki with too much mayo for Jin and no mayo at all for Taguchi.

Jin thinks the spatula serving them sounds and jerks around in a very Ryo-like fashion, but he’s not going to ask. The mayo crisis on his plate would make some sort of sense, though, if it was.

The dining table is huge, sprawling out to fill up most of the room in itself. Jin and Taguchi are sitting at the two heads of it, and he can barely see Taguchi because of it. It’s pretty counterproductive, actually, their goal being what it is, but Jin would be lying if he said he wasn’t happy for the distance. It’s a little too soon to be dealing with all that.

They don’t say much when they go their separate ways at the end of the night. Taguchi waves a little and scurries down the hall, the ottoman dog running after him and slipping into his room right before the door shuts.

Jin wonders what’s going to happen if they don’t meet the deadline, but the thought’s a little too depressing for him to keep going down that mental road. He falls into bed and dreams about pillaging and plundering and cursed gold pieces throughout the night.

 

Four days isn’t that much time to try to make someone fall in love with you.

Jin learns this the hard way because the next morning, Nakamaru has him and Taguchi doing icebreakers and trust games, both of which are completely useless. He knows about Taguchi’s stupid little habits and eccentricities – it’s hard not to pick up on these things after being friends for so long – and the trust games are dumb because they already _do_ trust each other. Eventually, Jin drops Taguchi on purpose when he falls back because they’ve done this five times already and Taguchi is heavy and extra taller now, since the only shoes they could find for him were his original pair of heels and Kame forbade him to walk around barefoot.

Perhaps the most annoying part of it all is that Taguchi seems to be taking everything in stride, the picture perfect definition of _no care in the world_ , even as he’s dusting his skirt off and frowning at the run in his tights. But even the happiest of creatures needs a break and once a crack makes itself evident in Taguchi’s cheerful mask, Nakamaru calls it quits, not wanting to risk having a moody Taguchi around. He’s the first to leave the room, citing the library as his destination.

“That went well!” Nakamaru says hopefully.

Jin rolls his eyes and leaves without saying anything. He needs some air.

He’s a little hesitant about going to the backyard when Taguchi isn’t with him because he has no idea where the wolves are, but when he gets out there he doesn’t see them anywhere, so at least he’s safe for now. He wanders around a little, pacing around a little to get rid of his pent up irritation; he kicks at a pile of dead leaves on the ground. It’s not as satisfying as kicking a soccer ball around, but it’ll do. He aims for another small pile and draws his foot back – 

“Oi.”

Jin spins around. There, on the other side of the gate, is a man in tattered clothing and a fraying cloak, hood shielding most of his face. Jin squints and tries, but he can’t make out any distinguishing features at all.

“Who are you?” He calls out.

The man lowers his hood and Jin gapes.

“It’s rude to stare,” Ueda says flatly.

“What…” Jin abandons the leaf-kicking and goes to the gate. Sure enough, it’s Ueda, right down to the delicate curve of his jaw. “How did you get on that side of the gate?”

“Teleportation,” Ueda deadpans. “I’ve always been on this side.” He pauses, pursing his lips together, deep in thought. “I guess I’m supposed to see you.” He sits down, crossing his legs underneath him.

Jin’s not sure what else to do but follow suit. “Okay, well…why?”

“How am I supposed to know? I was having coffee in a little café in town and all of a sudden, I felt this burning sensation to trek through the woods and then found myself here, watching you take your anger out on leaves.”

“They have a cream for that. The burning sensations, I mean,” Jin supplies.

“They also have shampoo, I hear,” Ueda shoots back.

Touché.

“Is Taguchi here?” Ueda asks.

Jin vaguely gestures towards the looming castle behind him. “He’s in there, all dolled up in women’s clothing. Why?”

Ueda stops and then shrugs. “Just wondering. I think I’m worried about him.”

“You think?”

“Yeah. I can’t really say for sure.” Ueda frowns. “I feel like I need to make sure he’s safe and not dead, but I don’t have any idea why.”

“I don’t really get it, but all right.” Jin shrugs. “He’s doing fine. A little moody, but intact at least.”

“Moody?”

Jin sighs and explains what’s going on to Ueda, who holds a poker face like it’s nobody’s business. He tells him about their trust games and icebreakers and wolf friends and as Jin’s rambling, he feels more and more jealous that Ueda’s on the other side of the gate, free from all the crazy happening on his end. Ueda just nods and listens…although he does snort back a laugh at the image of Ryo the spatula.

“This whole ‘falling in love’ thing should be simple enough. Taguchi’s liked you for a while; you’re halfway there,” Ueda says, finally offering to help out or something.

“Did he tell you this?”

Ueda shakes his head. “I just like to watch.”

“…creepy.”

“You live in a castle filled with talking objects.” Ueda yawns. “I don’t think being forced to spend time with Taguchi is a bad thing, in that case. Less chance of you being declared insane and all that.” He gets up, then, standing straight and stretching his arms over his head. “By the way, I’d get on the ‘falling in love thing’ as soon as you can. Koki’s coming by in two days to try and steal Taguchi away.”

Jin blinks up at him. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah. Koki’s here, too, but he’s with me in town. One minute he’s calling me insane, the next he’s apologizing and has no idea why he felt the need to do that.” Ueda smiles a little. “It’s actually kind of funny.”

“But what do you mean, he’s coming to steal Taguchi?” Jin asks.

“He declared it while he was at the tavern. He keeps flip-flopping between being in love with Taguchi and not knowing why he’s in love with Taguchi. So he’s coming here to scope things out, I think. Just so you know, since it’s the day before your deadline.” Ueda wanders off but Jin gets up and follows him on his side of the gate. He’s petting a horse, reins in hand. “I think I should be going now.” Ueda hops up onto the horse.

“Why?” Jin frowns. It’s pleasant, having someone relatively sane to talk to.

“I don’t know. Just a feeling I should. Good luck, Akanishi.” Ueda waves and takes off, leaving Jin behind in a cloud of dust kicked up by hooves.

Jin goes back to kicking at leaves after that.

 

In the midst of his leaf-kicking, he comes up with a plan of sorts. He spends the night scouring through the stacks in the library, pulling out books of things he vaguely remembers Taguchi being interested in, like time travel, fishing, ancient history, the works. After the initial shock that the teapot is _Koyama_ wears off, he asks him to see if he can have a couple of snacks, too, in addition to tea, and Koyama bounces around setting everything up for him, always eager to help out. 

In the morning, he grabs Taguchi around lunchtime and makes themselves comfortable in the library.

Taguchi has always been interested in the weirdest things, from the mundane to the complex. He’s smarter than most people give him credit for and picks and chooses who he talks to about whatever he’s interested in at the time, mostly people who share the same hobby. It’s one of the nicest things about him, really; Taguchi is who he is and doesn’t apologize for it, but doesn’t shove it in people’s faces most of the time. Puns aside.

Most importantly, Taguchi seems happy that Jin’s even sitting down to listen to him talk at length about each topic.

“Did you know it’s actually theoretically possible to travel to the future?” Taguchi says, flipping through one of the old tomes. He settles on a page and holds the book out to Jin, urging him to take a look.

“Why is that?” Jin asks. The words on the page are practically a different language, full of science terms and concepts he doubts he could ever even dream of. He’s not even sure he can pronounce half of this stuff.

“I think it has a lot to do with each individual person’s perspective, along with a lot of that technical stuff. Einstein said there is nothing in this world that is at full stop, that we’re all constantly moving through some sort of field, whether it be time or otherwise. But doesn’t each person view time differently? Like, ten minutes could pass right now, but for me, it could feel like an hour. And for you, maybe it’d feel like five minutes.” Taguchi furrows his brow. “I think a major principle of it was that because the future is spatially ahead of us and, if you think of time as a tangible thing like Einstein did, it won’t ever come to rest. Going backwards would be impossible.”

“Huh.” Jin feels a little lame that that’s all he has to offer, but his mind is too busy processing the information as it is. He isn’t surprised he’s confused, but he might as well toss out his thoughts anyway. “But…what if you flipped time upside down?”

Taguchi pauses. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” Jin begins, slightly embarrassed with himself. “It’s like…this guy says that there’s nothing in the world that’s at full rest or something, so time can’t slow down enough to go backwards because it would need to fully stop first.”

“Right.” Taguchi nods, urging him on, and Jin figures he might as well continue.

“But if time is something that you can touch, you could just flip it upside down. I mean, you obviously can’t cut into the system and just…flip it around, it would probably take like a supernova or something, or whatever it might be in that layer of the universe,” Jin muses.

Taguchi is quiet for a few moments, then smiles. “Ahhh…I see what you mean. But you’d still be going forward in time if you flipped it upside down. The way the path leads would be different, but that doesn’t change where it’s headed. Since time is an entity of its own with nothing actually containing it, how its road is laid out doesn’t really matter.”

“…oh.” Jin actually kind of gets it now. “So since the only thing about time that changes is how people feel its passage, getting it to go backwards would be impossible.”

“Exactly. There are tons of ways to change a physical thing, but how things feel…that’s tricky.” Taguchi grins. “That was really good, though! I never considered that angle before.”

“Well…you know,” Jin says lamely, but he can’t help the bit of pride worming its way into a small smile. Tricky indeed.

 

Koki shows up, like Ueda said. He looks about as confused as the rest of them are when they see him with a musket.

“Does he know how to use that?” Kame asks as they watch their groupmate hop down from his horse.

“I doubt it. He always uses the automatic guns when we play our survival games,” Nakamaru answers.

“Why is he here?” Taguchi asks.

“He’s trying to steal you away or something,” Jin replies. No one listens to him.

“I’m trying to steal you away,” Koki says directly to Taguchi, when they ask him themselves in the lobby of the castle.

“Oh…but I like it here,” Taguchi says, frowning slightly.

“Do you really?” Koki asks, looking around the place. Taguchi looks, too.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Do you _really_ really?” Koki asks again, studying him in earnest.

“ _Yes,_ ” Taguchi replies with an air of certainty this time.

“Oh. Okay, then.” Koki shrugs. “I kind of feel like punching Jin, though. Does anyone know why?”

Kame snorts.

 

This is what it comes down to, then. The four of them, staring balefully at the wilting rose in Jin’s bedroom. There are only two petals left.

Needless to say, they’re kind of freaking out.

“ _What do we do?!_ ” Kame shrills.

“Have you tried just…saying the words?” Nakamaru asks Taguchi, who frowns.

“No. It would have been insincere.”

“Just try it!” Kame looks like he’s about one step away from throttling Taguchi and at this point, Jin almost tells him to go for it since they’re all cursed, anyway. He watches another petal fall from the flower. He’s a little disappointed, to be honest. He knows he’s more suave than that. Maybe he just didn’t try hard enough.

There is a bright side to this, though.

“At least I’m a person and Ryo’s a spatula,” he says to no one in particular.

Kame’s spazzing so much that the hands on his clock body are spinning around in a frenzy.

Nakamaru is furiously flipping through pages of a book, hoping for a hint or _something_ , even though it’s the book of magic tricks Jin found for Taguchi in the library.

Taguchi at least looks somewhat apologetic. “Sorry, guys.”

The last petal falls, and Jin braces himself.

 

“Game over?!”

Jin blinks once he gets his visor off, eyes adjusting to the light in their dressing room. He goes to rub at his eyes, forgetting the gloves on his hands and ends up just irritating them further.

Meanwhile, Nakamaru yanks his eyewear off and rips off the gloves. “That was a complete waste of an hour and a half.”

“Well, I had fun,” Ueda says, carefully folding his gloves up.

“That’s because you barely even did anything! Every time I saw you in town, all you did was eat pie and drink coffee. Some mad scientist you were supposed to be,” Koki retorts.

“You should be one to talk!” Kame interjects. “Wasn’t the big battle supposed to be between you and Jin? That was just disappointing.”

“Isn’t technology amazing, though?” Taguchi pipes up, powering off the console. “I mean, it completely drew on our surroundings and feelings and included people we knew, and we all did our own things even though we were all in the same game! Ahhhh, I’m so happy I saw this at Akiba.” He hugs the visor to his chest. “We should play all the time!”

“I’ve had enough of you in a dress, thanks,” Jin mutters, removing his gloves and properly rubbing his eyes this time. He’s a little confused as to which feelings are made up, which feelings are real, and which feelings he _wants_ to be real, but before he has time to consider even asking Taguchi about the most important ones, there’s a knock on their door. A staff member of the TV show they’re about to film pokes his head in and informs them that they’re ready to start. They leave the game gear on the table for now – Taguchi can clean it up himself later.

Jin does fall in step next to the other as they walk down the corridor, though, and they jostle each other every so often as they continue. He’s not quite sure how to approach the subject, but figures a start somewhere would be beneficial. “Hey, Taguchi.”

“Hmmm?” Taguchi looks at him, radiating cheer. “What is it?”

He pauses for a moment. “Let’s go get ramen after we’re done today.”

Taguchi nods, beaming. “Okay. I’ll even order extra mayo for you.”

Jin just shoves him through the doorway and onto the set.


End file.
